Thunder get close, again, and lose, again

Published Nov. 7, 2014 11:10 p.m. ET

foxsports

Another game effort, another atta-boy for the Thunder Friday night in Oklahoma City against Memphis.

And another loss, too.

This is life these days for the Thunder, where they've gone from elite to "Not exactly." From winning to wannabes.

The Thunder played close once again and lost once again, this time a 91-89 loss to the Grizzlies where the Thunder weren't undone by the lack of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the multitudes of others who were unable to play. They overcame all that.

The Thunder don't have the personnel to overpower teams anymore, and no one's blaming them for losing. But for a team that needs to figure out how to move mountains and perform magic on any given trip down the floor to generate offense, the way the Thunder fell Friday night is on the same page as inexcusable.

Guarding Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol is hard, but the Thunder did that really well.

Making shots is difficult, too, especially with this lineup. But OKC was fine there as well.

Rallying from 14 points down is unheard of with this team Oklahoma City puts on the floor, but yet, here it was, down just two in the final seconds.

So, with all that difficulty and hardship and issues this team has, why the heck isn't able to do the simple things like make free throws and inbound the ball?

Oklahoma City fell to 1-5 on the season and there was no excuse plausible. The Thunder missed 8-of-11 free throws and Nick Collison got called for a 5-second violation with less than 6 seconds to play with the Thunder down just a single point.

Coach Scott Brooks has been somewhat masterful in mixing and matching lineups and personalities as the the team has been crushed by injuries, but he couldn't have done anything but wince at the way this one turned out.

Gasol and Randolph combined for just 24 points on 9-of-19 shooting. Meanwhile, six Thunder players had 13 or more points. Jeremy Lamb started for the first time this season and had 17 points on 8-of-15 shooting, including a game-tying 3-pointer with 4:09 to play.

But OKC made just two-of-eight free throws in the fourth quarter. Even Phil Jackson couldn't have coached the Thunder out of that.

"We have what we have right now," guard Reggie Jackson said. "I don't think there's a team out there better than us. I thought we'd be on the other side of this one tonight."

Probably should have been considering what the Thunder did to get themselves in position to win. Memphis came in unbeaten, but the Thunder held the Grizzlies to 42 percent shooting. The Thunder were missing their regulars and this time they were also missing Perry Jones and Andre Roberson. Ish Smith, the newest member of the team, played 8 minutes.

It wasn't the kind of team that's destined for greatness, but it was good enough to do all the difficult things Friday. Too bad the easy stuff got overlooked.

"I knew going into this stretch we were going to have to compete and play efficiently on both ends," Brooks said. "These are great experiences for our guys to be in."

Brooks is right. OKC has to be more efficient and more competitive than it has been in the past. There's no Durant and Westbrook to rely on and there's no go-to player good enough to bail the team out.

But Friday, Serge Ibaka had a career-best four 3-pointers. Steven Adams had 11 rebounds and 13 points. Jackson had 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

The Thunder did what they were supposed to do.

Except for the easy things.

"We're just trying to make the most of this opportunity and have fun.," Jackson said. "We're 1-5. I wanted to be 6-0. It's that simple to me. It's hard being on this other side."